The sun seemed to rise slowly that morning. It's warm, radiant light painting the scenery around the tower a deep red as they filtered through the dense smoke that rose from the cities around them. There was a long line of burnt out ruins that had once been cities, and the scorched landscape around them revealed a definite path that was heading straight for Zavoyevatel's tower. The forests, once grand and green, spanning the distance between the cities were now ashen wastelands. Tornadoes of flames spun out of control across their barren ground, sucking the smoke high into the sky. The roads and highways had melted into pools of lava, and filled the air around them with a horrible, acrid stench. Nichole, Micheal, Pulse and Prism were positioned outside of Zavoyevatel's tower, alongside a regiment of the God-King's soldiers.

"What do you think it is?" Prism asked, watching the smoke pour into the sky in the distance.
"I have no idea." Pulse said softly, watching bolts of lightning arc through the clouds of ash.
"It's probably the humans." One of Zavoyevatel's soldiers said, dragging her claws across the vambraces they wore, sharpening them.
"What makes you think that?" Micheal asked as the thunder rolled past them.
"They know these towers belong to the God-King, and they hate us for some reason. They seem to fear what they do not understand, and from fear comes hate, and from hate comes violence. QED." She said, popping her neck.
"What's with all the smoke then?" Nichole asked. She could feel something wicked on the wind. Something powerful.
"They're probably looting everything as they pass through. Greed seems rampant in these creatures." Another of the soldiers said. There was a sudden crash far in front of them, as a tank rolled over a concrete barrier, reducing it to pebbles beneath it's treads. Human soldiers leapt over the barriers around it, each of them running ahead towards the God-King's tower. Nichole focused her power, her mechanical limbs emitting a high-pitched whine as they stored kinetic energy. Micheal tightened his fists as they began to softly glow, emitting a soft hum. Pulse adjusted his hat and spread his hands out as his palms glowed softly. Prism held out her hands as pinpoints of light appeared at the tips of her fingers. Zavoyevatel's soldiers drew their weapons and assumed their battles stances, ready for blood.

But even with this display of potential violence in front of them, the soldiers did not slow down or change directions. Some of them even dropped their guns as they ran, even as their commanding officers ordered them to keep them with them. The tank's top half turned around and fired a shell into the city as it's bottom half continued forwards. More tanks drove out of the city, accompanied by military and civilian vehicles, all of them moving at high speed towards the God-King's tower. They didn't seem to care about the fifty-soldier force that was between them and the walled city, they only seemed concerned about whatever it was behind them. Nichole relaxed as the soldiers ran towards them, the rest of her detachment following suit.
"What's going on?" Prism asked as the first of the soldiers ran up to them, out of breath and covered in ash and sweat.
"P-please, you've got to help us." He panted, holding his chest.
"What's going on?" Micheal demanded as he walked up the man.
"Please, you guys have powers or some shit, right!?" He asked as other soldiers ran up behind him, equally out of breath and terrified.
"Depends entirely on what you say next." Nichole said as Zavoyevatel's soldiers walked up to see what the commotion was.
"There's some kind of, I don't know, demon or some shit headed this way! We hit it with everything short of a nuclear warhead, and it won't stop coming!" Another of the humans panted as the tanks rolled across the highway between them and the other city.
"Please, you've got to help us." The first soldier panted.
"My king, one of these humans says there's a demon headed this way." One of Zavoyevatel's soldiers said over his headset.

"Take it down. The portal is almost ready to fire." Zavoyevatel responded.

"Are you ready?" Zavoyevatel asked as Zoe laid down inside of the metal box. It looked less like a coffin from the inside, which was reassuring. But just barely. Siren laid down in the other box and took several deep breaths to calm her pounding heart. She wished Pulse and Prism were here. It would make things a little easier, but not by much.
"As ready as I'll ever be." Zoe said, taking a long, deep breath through her nose, and exhaling through her mouth as she focused.
"Siren, are you ready?" Zavoyevatel asked as his aides attached cables to the various clamps on her body.
"Not really, but I think I can do this." Siren said as they placed the clamps on her wrists.
"Remember Zoe, this will be an incredible amount of energy. Likely more energy than you have ever transmuted." Zavoyevatel said.
"I got this." Zoe scoffed as they placed her clamps on and tightened the cables onto them.
"Siren, this is an honorable thing you are doing, my child." Zavoyevatel said, checking her clamps himself to assure everything would operate smoothly.
"So I keep it open, and we all go home?" Siren asked, laying her head back and focusing.
"Yes. Zoe, you understand what you're to do?" Zavoyevatel asked, stepping back and placing his hands on the focuses in front of the portal.
"I got this, old man." Zoe said, adjusting herself and getting comfortable.
"Let us begin then." Zavoyevatel said, pressing a button on the focus.

The whole room jerked once, and with the sound of grinding metal, the ceiling began to open as fiberglass shields covered Zoe and Siren's chambers. Pebbles, dirt and smaller debris fell into the portal room as it began to rise upwards. There were over two thousand widlerfolk from all across the world gathered in this massive chamber, waiting to go home. Some of them had never even seen Theresia, having lived their whole lives on this planet. The tower slid backwards, and began to fold into itself as the portal room rose up from far beneath it. The tower expanded sideways, encircling the portal room as it ascended on top of a massive pillar of machinery and stone. It came to a stop with a resonating boom that shook the city around them.

"Take care of it, he says." Micheal said, feeling the impact shake the earth underneath them.
"We don't even know what 'It' is." He added as more vehicles approached them, civilians and soldiers alike rushing for sanctuary behind them.
"So do we just wait for whatever it is to get here, or do we meet on our own terms?" Nichole asked him.
"Let's go say hi." Pulse said, grinning over at Prism. She wasn't sure about this, but his grin was infectious.

They rushed forwards as the humans all made way, hardly taking notice of them as they ran. As they ran into the city, they realized the air was becoming thick with smoke, and the temperature was steadily rising the further they went. As they neared the center of the city, the air became filled with ashes and smoke. The plants in the city's downtown area had burst into flames in the intense heat.
"This is unbearable." Nichole said, backing up behind a concrete wall as a wave of heat blew past them, filling the air with the scent of burning plastic.

"We can't fight a firestorm." Pulse said, coughing.
"I can help." One of the guards said, walking out and casting out a massive wave of ice-cold air, immediately cooling the surrounding area. As she spread her arms out, the heat waves slowly died down.
"I can't keep this up for long." She said, pressing forwards as everyone walked behind her.
"We just need to see what's making them all run, and if we can take care of it." Nichole said, her mechanical eye clicking and zooming in to focus on something at the other end of the main street they were on.
"Is that..." She looked closer, making sure she wasn't seeing things. The heat surrounding him made it unclear what she was seeing, but it looked like a single man, wreathed in flames.
"It's a man." Nichole said as another wave of heat slammed into them all.
"A man? He's doing all this?" Prism asked.
"I don't know, it's hard to see." Nichole said, straining to focus on him.
"I can help." Prism said, stepping forwards and spreading her hands out, focusing the light in front of her and creating a magical telescopic lense. Nichole felt her heart leap into her throat as they all took a reflexive step backwards.

It was a man, at least ten feet tall. Not wreathed in flames, but composed of solid, orange fire that glowed like the sun even from this distance. He had pinpoints of white hot flame peppering his chest like bullet holes, from which spewed plasma arcs that connected across his chest. His eyes were glowing a brilliant red, and emitting a dense red smoke that wasn't blown away in the whirlwind of heat was creating. His hair was composed of solid tendrils of fire that laid across his shoulder and draped down his back. From each of his hands extended a blade of flame that emitted so much heat that the city around him melted. The concrete supporting the buildings burst into flames and fell away, waves of heat blasting massive chunks away into the air. The glass had long since shattered, and the window frames melted into flaming pools that evaporated in the infernal heat. The steel supporting the buildings melted away, and the massive skyscrapers fell sideways, crashing down on top of him. But the hellish inferno he created melted the falling debris into liquid metal that splashed against him harmlessly, some of it evaporating away into gases from the heat he created. The oxygen was sucked from the air around him as the street became a river of lava that flowed towards him, each step sinking into the earth a short way, and splashing the lava into the air around him. And he was walking right towards them.

"That's..." Nichole said, stepping back reflexively as another wave of heat pressed against the field of ice cold air the soldier was producing.
"I can't do this much longer! We need to get out of here!" She said, straining against the fire-laced winds.
"We can't face that." Nichole said.
"Everyone retreat! We need to warn Zavoyevatel!" Nichole ordered. They all turned and fled back to the towers as the city continued to melt behind them. They came to a halt by the stone wall, and one of the soldiers radioed Zavoyevatel.
"Sire, it's a pyromancer of impossible power! He's disintegrating the entire city! The legion calls him SwitchBlade!" She shouted over the radio as the winds began to pick up around them. Something landed beside them, creating a shockwave that bowled them all over. They got back up to see Persephone standing there, bolts of lightning flying from her eyes as she marched forwards.
"I'll handle this." She growled.
"Get out of here." She added menacingly as the rest of them rushed into the city, it's massive stone wall retreating to welcome them in.

Persephone walked into the city as the flames blew by her, lighting her clothes on fire. She scoffed as a the wind howled at her, and tore her clothing off, letting it fly away into the wind. Zavoyevatel had given her a new suit to wear under her clothes, one that couldn't burn. But as she walked deeper into the city, the air became hotter and thicker, each breath felt like she was breathing through a rag. She walked onto main street and saw him in the distance, the city melting to the ground around him. He looked up at her and took a deep breath, the winds dying down as all of the heat in the city was sucked through the air, the lava instantly cooling into rock, and clouds of metal vapor solidified into short spikes in the air around him, falling to the ground and piercing into it. He continued inhaling as the clouds of smoke above the city condensed into snowy ash, falling down to the streets. Ice formed on the streets around Persephone and covered the buildings as the wind began to pick up, pulling the air towards him. Soon it was a howling blizzard, and the temperature plummeted to hundreds of degrees below zero, freezing everything but Persephone solid as he inhaled. The winds died down, and Persephone shook from the cold, ice covering her hair and back as she shivered. He was the only thing that emitted heat now, and even from more than a hundred feet away, Persephone could feel a powerful wave of heat emitted from him that began to thaw the ice from her body.

"I thought I killed you." She said, shaking the ice off of herself.

SwitchBlade leaned forwards and opened his mouth, and Persephone had exactly one second for her heart to sink before a pillar of brilliant multi-colored plasma fired out of the back of SwitchBlade's throat. At first it was a pencil-thin stream of pure energy that slammed into her and shoved her back, melting the street around it and blasting her fireproof suit into ashes as she held out her hands to block it. But then the torrent of energy was released, and it became a pillar of fire a mile thick that shot through the city, instantly reducing the buildings to vapor and blasting any vegetation within a hundred miles into ash. Zavoyevatel felt a pulse of power and turned around just in time to see the wall of flame coming towards his city. He pulled all of the mana from his reserves and held his hands out, creating a shield on one side of his city. The heatwave slammed into his shield and split around his city, leaving it unschathed. The pillar of light extended three miles away from it's origin, carrying Persephone along with it. She was wrapped in fire, but was unable to burn. The air in her lungs burst into flames, but she was unable to scream in pain. All she could see was light, even when she closed her eyes. She slammed into hundreds of things, each of them reduced to plasma in seconds. She bounced across the earth for a full minute, wrapped in fire, before slamming into a embankment that didn't vaporise. She slid down in the pool of lava, bursting through it's surface, taking a deep breath before screaming in agony.

Hundreds of miles away, a scream jerked someone out a deep, dark, dreamless slumber. She felt her daughter's spirit in agony, and stood up out of the rubble she had been buried in. She felt her chest and pulled the massive scythe out of her, feeling the wound seal itself shut. She felt her daughter again, and felt a massive source of energy moving towards her. She leapt from the rubble and far into the air, heading towards the chaos.

Persephone pulled herself out of the pool of lava, screaming in pain. Her skin caught fire, but did not burn away. She rolled across the ground, writhing in pain, struggling to extinguish the flames. She heard something land near her as she finally put the flames out, and looked up to see SwitchBlade walking towards her, every step turning the earth around him to lava. The plasma filling the air around him began to condense, making it rain liquid fire onto the earth behind him. The sky was painted a deep red color, and clouds of ash rained fire for miles around.
"You betrayed him!" SwitchBlade roared, a blast of prismatic plasma bursting out of his mouth and sending Persephone skipping across the ground before slamming into a rock. SwitchBlade walked towards her slowly, as Persephone pushed herself up. The rock she had slammed into melted at her feet, becoming a pool of lava behind her. SwitchBlade raised his hands at his sides, and around the two of them rose a hundred foot tall ring of multicolored flames, trapping Persephone inside with him.
"And now, you suffer." SwitchBlade said, rushing towards her.

Something landed between them, creating a shockwave of black energy that sent them both flying away. Persephone's heart sank as she looked up to see Matilda stand up out of the crater.
"B-but..." She stuttered, staring at her, unable to move.
"You killed me." Matilda said, looking down at her.
"You died." Persephone said, as the tears she cried evaporated in the impossible heat.
"I know. It wasn't pleasant." Matilda said, dropping the scythe Persephone had created. It melted into a puddle of lava as Matilda held out her hand, creating another scythe of pitch black energy.
"Why, daughter?" Matilda asked as the fires around them intensified.
"You needed to pay for what you did!" Persephone sobbed, pushing herself to her feet.
"Do you think I've suffered enough now?" Matilda asked, stepping to the side as SwitchBlade lunged forwards.

SwitchBlade lunged for Persephone, and a blade of pitch black energy pierced his chest, staking him to the ground. Matilda waved her hands as a net of energy pinned him down.
"You disappointed me, child. I told you to be better than I was. Instead, you killed Kane. Tore his heart out, if I'm not mistaken. Not to mention you killed me." Matilda said.
"I could forgive killing me, I deserve it." Matilda said, scoffing.
"Who am I to judge." She muttered.
"But you've chosen your path, child. I won't force you to be with me. If you want to come home with me, I can forgive you. I know what you saw, I know what you felt. I felt it all, once I could actually feel. I never deserved this gift, but I was given it regardless." Matilda said.
"Get out of here. Go to Zavoyevatel, go home. I will deal with SwitchBlade." Matilda said, creating twin scythes of black energy.

"NO-O-O!!" SwitchBlade roared, emitting a pulse of white hot flames that vaporized Matilda's constructs and sent them both flying through the wall of plasma surrounding them. He slammed into Persephone and stabbed one of his blades through her left leg, pinning her to a cliffside as it began to melt, drowning her in lava. He pulled his blade out, sending her hurtling across the ruined wasteland and into another pool of lava. She screamed as she pulled herself out of it, and had the strangest feeling she was missing something. But before she could look to see what it was, SwitchBlade was back, and stabbed his blades into her right leg. He hoisted her above his head and pulled his blades apart, their white-hot edges severing the bone in her upper leg and completely cutting her leg off. His blades retracted and he grabbed her by the neck as she fell, slamming her into the ground as it melted underneath her, drowning her in lava again. Something slammed into SwitchBlade, sending him flying away. Persephone burst out of the lava, screaming in pain to see SwitchBlade pinned to the ground by a scythe with a mile long blade.
"Get out of here." Matilda growled, a chain of black energy wrapping around Persephone and sending her flying into the distance with a whip-like motion.

All across the world, the towers inside of the ringed cities spread apart along their sides, with long needle-like filaments spreading into the air around them. Lightning began to strike these filaments, even out of clear blue skies, and the air began to become cold around them. A sudden surge of wind pulled everything around the towers towards them, and the temperature in the tower's cities suddenly began to plummet as a brilliant glow lit up the top of each tower. Anyone around these towers had the air pulled out of the lungs, and the heat sucked from their skin, frozen in place almost instantly. Any cities around the towers that still had power blacked out, every watt of energy sucked out of their grids and into the towers. A brilliant light lit up each of these towers, and they fired a pillar of light into the sky that pierced the clouds and arced away, all of these beams of power focusing onto a single point near the north american midwest. Four massive spikes of metal rose from the city around the portal, almost touching above it, and the beams of